DePauw Police Captain's Negotiating Skills Praised in Media Reports

September 28, 2006

September 28, 2006, Greencastle, Ind. - DePauw University Police Captain Ken Hirt is one of two police officers "being commended for their negotiation skills that resulted in the peaceful resolution of a 14-hour standoff in Clay County," reports Greencastle's Banner-Graphic. Hirt and Putnam County Sheriff's Detective Mike Biggs talked a Clay County deputy "into peacefully ending the situation," which took place last Friday evening. The Clay deputy "had fired warning shots Friday morning after Indiana State Police attempted to serve an arrest warrant on him for actions during a domestic dispute," reports Lisa Meyer Trigg.

"The dynamics of the whole thing could have been disastrous," says Putnam Sheriff Mark Frisbie, a 1992 graduate of DePauw, who responded to the scene along with Biggs and Hirt. "Not only were they dealing with a police officer, but they were dealing with someone who is tactically trained."

As the newspaper points out, "Both Biggs and Hirt have gone through FBI training as well as continuing education to be negotiators, Frisbie said, and Friday's event may become an example for national discussion at an upcoming negotiations conference. It is not often that police officers are faced with a standoff situation involving one of their own number as the suspect."

Kenny Hirt was also featured in a report on Indianapolis CBS affiliate WISH. He told the station about the sensitive negotiations with the suspect -- a fellow officer with S.W.A.T. training. "There are different tactics, different strategies, different conversations your instantly reminding yourself this guy is not only one of us, not only has done what we have done for a number of years but then beyond that is (he) tactically knows everything that we're doing. (He) even knows what I'm doing. They don't negotiate but certainly all their training involves negotiations."

WISH's Ruthanne Gordon reports, "Officer Hirt is both a Putnam County deputy, and captain of the DePauw University Police. He's been a police officer for 26 years."